How to get a toddler to take antibiotics?

[Hugsandpastries]

Hi,

My two yr old has been diagnosed with something quite serious. He needs three months of daily antibiotics, taking four different liquid medicines a day.

He’s already taking one medicine daily which I really struggle to get in him. He fights and it ends up with me pinning him down and forcing it in with a syringe. Not great but I don’t know how to persuade him to take it voluntarily. I give a chocolate as a treat afterwards, that cheers him up but doesn’t make him want it next time!

Has anyone else been through giving antibiotics to a toddler for months? Does it ever get any better? Or do you know any techniques that might help? Thanks!

We got fruit pouches and mixed it in with that in a bowl and spoon fed. The stronger the antibiotics the more fruit to hide the taste. It worked better than yogurt and some antibiotics will curdle milk (found that out the hard way).

Hope your little one is better soon

We use fruit purée for my sons medication and it works fine: we also give it as part of meal/snack time so he doesn’t realise it’s medication.

There is a website called “medicines for children” that is worth looking at before you mix any food/medication as sometimes certain things aren’t recommended due to the reactions etc.

Here is the website: look on here and speak to your pharmacist with any queries

www.medicinesforchildren.org.uk/

Thanks everyone, some great ideas here :) I'll go and speak to the pharmacist tomorrow.

Stir it into a little bit of yoghurt

Another vote for stir it into a yoghurt.

My dc has autism so I’ve tried all sorts of ways to ‘hide’ medicines over the years I’ve even mixed crushed tablet anitibiotics into the tomatoe purée in a pizza in desperate times.

It may be worth speaking to your GP because by 2 years old our gp was happy for us to have antibiotic tablets for dd that we broke in half and crushed and then put half into a cup of decaf tea with sugar which always worked a treat.

You would need to speak to a GP / pharmacist though as some antibiotics can’t be crushed or mixed with drinks, luckily we got ones that could be.

You could also ask the GP for a higher strength syrup antibiotics so you’re only trying to get half the volume down.

Does your 2 year old still use a dummy? You can also buy medicine dummy’s and put the antibiotic in there.

The trouble is he seems to cotton on that the yoghurt tastes a bit funny...we've tried antibiotics mixed into yoghurt and ice-cream in the past, but he's made a face and not eaten more than a couple of mouthfuls. He needs to eat it all otherwise I don't know how much of the dose he's had :( He's never had a dummy unfortunately. Tablets sound good.

We find Apple and mango purée hide the vile taste loads better than yogurt :)

I used to give my dd the syringe to give herself the medicine. Maybe it would make your ds feel a bit in charge of the situation. Also you could rouse him a little in the night to take a dose.

I posted exactly this question about a month ago. Lots of advice and, if it’s not too late for you, what worked best for me was making a huge deal of allowing him watch a Peppa Pig video on my phone while he got his medicine.

Also, using a spoon can help more go in than a syringe if he spits out. Just put a small part of the dose on the spoon and then you can use the spoon to catch spit out and chin dribbles and scoop it back in. Then add the next bit from the syringe etc. that way if he whacks the syringe away, you haven’t spilled the whole thing.

By the end of his forty doses, he was actually looking forward to it and asking for his “Peppa medicine”

Thanks sycamore54321. Definitely not too late - we have only just started and have nearly three months of treatment to go . The pharmacist advised against mixing with any food so it will have to be syringe/spoon.

“Peppa medicine” - love it!